Good day all!
I haven't actually been posting on this blog have I?
Ahahaha, sorry about that!
But honestly, I've been busy!
If you haven't taken a look at my "Current Projects" list,
then you should take a peek and then marvel at my awesomeness!
I've been doing a lot of project juggling, and now, not only am I editing various projects
for various groups, but I am also providing HQ scans of Haruchika
(which I can tell you is more than a pain in the butt!)
and Soda Scans needs a Japanese translator
to help out on this project!
If you have some mad translating skills at your disposal,
and you're willing to help a buddy out,
(insert super adorable puppy/kitten eyes here)
then please consider contributing your skill set to a worthy cause!
Honestly, I have a whole new respect for scanlation groups.
This came to be because I bought a couple of volumes from Japan recently,
and learned how difficult it is to do the job of providing these high quality scans that all
Firstly...
How to scan this book into those lovely, simple,
individual pages that leeches fans love to read?
I wept tears of blood trying to figure this out.
Because I did NOT want to unbind my precious manga.
GUESS WHAT?!
I had to unbind my beautiful manga in order to get these lovely pages to our readers.
Step 1: Google how to unbind manga.
Step 2: Read all the absurd ways it can be done.
Step 3: Weep tears of blood.
Step 4: Pick a process.
Step 5:
DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD,
DO NOT MICROWAVE MANGA!
Step 6: Cry more tears of blood.
Step 7: Go to a helpful manga forum and discover a decent way to get this shit done.
Step 8: More tears of blood.
Step 9: Prepare your desk with a clothes iron, dry dish cloth, a shot of strong alcohol.
Step 10: Make sure to have the iron at the "wool" setting (just to start off). Adjust heat accordingly.
Step 11: Remove manga jacket if it has one. Wrap manga in the cloth (Make sure the spine is especially covered well). This is important. Because you will be "loosening" the glue of the spine right here.
Step 12: Pray. Take small sip of alcohol to control shaking hands. HAVE STEADY HANDS.
Step 13: Press the spine of the manga to the iron. Make sure the cloth is there to take the brunt of the heat. Check the manga after a few seconds. CAREFULLY FFS pull the cover away from the rest of the pages. It should start loosening bit by bit. If not return spine to the iron.
THE POINT OF THE IRON, IS TO LOOSEN THE GLUE!
You do NOT want to actually melt the glue.
Step 14: Repeat the press and gentle pull until you can easily detach each page without tearing. This takes a while if you're being careful. If you pull too hard or if your heat setting is too high, you can end up with torn pages or melted glue all over the place.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!
Step 15: Please check this thread out if you need any more description on how to unbind manga. It's very helpful! Manga Helpers!
ALSO: Here is how to do it, with pictures! Debinding!
This person did a really job with explaining how to do it, I highly recommend this how to~
And now after tons of work, you have a pile of pages.
PLEASE DO NOT mix up the pages ahaha...
Well what now? It's time to scan it, that's what.
Get a decent scanner. The scanner that I have is connected to a printer,
but it can scan to a max of 1200 dpi which is more than enough for me.
Make sure you have your settings set on your scanner.
For coloured pages,
I had it on color settings, .PNG, 1200 dpi.
Side Note: 1200 dpi takes forever to scan.
For "normal" pages:
grayscale settings, .PNG, 600 dpi.
Work with a process. It's easy to get lost after doing a ton of pages.
Number your scans to pages accordingly.
STAY ORGANIZED!
After all the pages are scanned...
Well that's where the work begins!
How the hell do you think the raws get to that
marvelous high quality point in the first place?!
It wasn't by magic bishes.
Hard work of the scanner and the editor goes into those lovely high quality chapters.
IF you want to know the details of the scanning and then editing process
(BEFORE the actual cleaners and typesetters get to it)
feel free to look it up.
Because I'm already exhausted just thinking about it.
I am swimming in an ocean of bloody tears.
(Basic summary of scan/edit: Mode - grayscale/color? Rotate, Crop, Levels Layer, Curves Layer, Reduce Noise, Gaussian Blue, Sharpen, Re-level, Clean dust/specks, Resize height, Save .PNG)
tl;dr
Scanlating is hard.
So if you are one of those readers that enjoy reading manga online,
please consider contributing/helping out those people that VOLUNTEER their time
and energy to provide you these amazing works.
Several ways to help out the manga community:
1. Help out a scanlation group - Everyone is always looking for help with cleaning and typesetting projects. Translators are especially important!
2. Donate what you can to whatever group that is putting out your favourite manga.
Getting these manga are expensive. (Mine came all the way from Japan.)
3. Buy the manga when the official licensed version comes out!
Let's support the author as much as possible this way!
Or simply drop by your scanlation group's website and say
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK!
(Otsukaresama desu!)
It's amazing when a reader takes the time to thank everyone for their hard work.
Trust me, it really makes a difference!
So show your support, one way or another~
💜 Kaori 💜
